After watching about every game down the stretch this season, I have concluded, not by pure chance, I assure you, that the Tampa Bay Rays can’t be for real.

With the third-lowest team salary and zero fan support at the “Trop,” the Rays are forced to field a team that has to overachieve to succeed. This year, it worked for a while as they disposed of the Yankees, Rangers and Cleveland. But these one-game, sudden-death wild card games were not for real either. Any team can win one game. Taking on a team like the Red Sox in a best-of-five-games series is another story. The Rays’ ace pitcher, David Price, looked very vulnerable and got beat. Players like Will Myers picked up from the Royals looked terrible and showed his lack of experience in big games. Is it a choke job, or are the Rays just not that good?

Let’s face it, they’re spoilers, not real contenders. The best they can ever do is wreck some other team’s season. Then they peter out and their season is over. That’s why they’re not for real.